Introduction to Film

Mise-En-Scene Notes

The word is derived from the French, meaning “placing on stage”. The concept of Mise-En-
scene was developed by theorists interested in issues of actor ship, in the role of
participants and particularly in directors in the meaning of films. The quality of a director’s
work could be read through his style and his control over Mise-En-Scene.

Elements of Mise-En-Scene: -
1. Settings: It is a crucial part of the films expressive capabilities and it constitutes much
more than a backdrop for the action of a story. A filmmaker may select a setting from
a pre-existing environment or may construct a set within a studio lot. Films may also
use a combination of contribution and pre-existing environment. In many instances
the primary aim of the setting is to suggest audacity and the content and the style of
the set is dictated by what is appropriate to the story time and place. Setting
particularly in art films may also create a sense of alienation from the story or draw
attention to narrators’ artificiality.

2. Props: The term props short form of property refers to movable object within the
sets. Specifically, those which take on a significant role within the story. These props
are more than simply things and objects, which are used to dress up set. They may
serve as iconic graphics of genre, they may also be used to drive the narrative
forward and crucially may also take on metaphoric signification. Props may also
contribute to character’s motivation in the narrative.

3. Costumes: Costume and Make-up have similar expressive and symbolic capabilities
to the other graphic properties of Mise-En-Scene, but are also explicitly connected to
characterization. Costumes may be used to indicate to us information about the
personality or the status of the character, costume may also draw or on existing
cultural commutation. Costume can function to signal a change in characters status in
an instance where the characters privileged life in indicated by his elegant suite and
tie and his change in fortune is accompanied by comical and humiliating changes in
clothing. Change in costume may equally reflect alteration in a character’s
psychology.

4. Performance and Movement: Performance is an extremely rich area of cinematic

expressions as with narrative itself, many elements of cinematic performance have
their origins in conversation imported theatre. Thus, vaudeville tradition informs the
 types of performances often found in musicals and comedies where physical actions
in the form of dancing, acrobatics, slapstick or mime maybe required. In the 1950
Leestrasbery Actor’s studio, had an important influence on the Hollywood cinema
through its promotion of method acting. Actors were encouraging to explore their
own psychology and personal history as a means of providing performances. It is
important to know that motions such as naturalism are related terms, they operate
in relation to audience expectation. These viewers of this generation may seem like
highly naturalistic performance, might seem highly stylised and exaggerated to the
next gen of movie viewers. As judgement are based not so much on how people
actually are based not so much on how people actually behave in life but on what
audiences are used to seem on screen.
• Performance signs identified by film theorists for the analysis of film are as follow: -
i. Facial Expressions
ii. Voice
iii. Gestures
iv. Body posture
v. Body Movement

5. Light: lighting is clearly in that it shapes how we respond to all Mise-En-Scene other
properties providing compositional emphasis through illumination and shadow,
lighting may come from sources that we see on screen but more typically they come
from off screen sources. Classical Hollywood lightning traditionally involve either a
two point lighting system or a three point lighting system in which a key light is a
primary light source and normally corresponds to visible light sources on screen, a fill
light frequently placed just over 90* from the key light serves to soften the effect by
cancelling out some of the shadows cast by the key light, in some cases a backlight is
also used, normally this is placed to highlight there shape and make them stand
against the setting. The precise arrangement of the light, whether or not the overall
lighting effect of n image is high key or low key. High key light refers to a lighting
design where there is little contrast then the light and shadowed areas of the frame.
Low key light refers to a lighting system where there is stark contrast between the
light and shadowed area of the frame.